An Offer to Enroll
"Here is your faculty ID, Professor Lee Hyun."
Having finally visited the Academy's administrative office, Lee Hyun at last received his identification card.
Perhaps because of all the trouble he'd endured for the lack of one, the card felt all the more precious in his hands.
"Your lecture will be listed under the new course offerings starting next week. Will you be keeping the content and title exactly as you wrote them before?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Understood. We'll announce the course to the students within the week and open additional enrollment."
Potential Awakening and Unique Technique Optimization.
That was the title of the course Lee Hyun would be teaching from now on.
'A course focused on personalized combat mechanics and the re-evaluation of fundamental abilities. Hmm. Not bad as a pitch for drawing interest.'
It was the ideal course for making full use of the traits he possessed.
He had no intention of taking on a large class anyway — he only planned to meet the minimum enrollment requirement.
'The problem is that even that might be difficult at first.'
Lee Hyun expected that students wouldn't flock to his lectures in the early going.
He was an unknown professor, and a blind one leaning on a white cane at that.
The course content was strange enough on its own — add a physically disabled man teaching it, and anxiety was the natural response.
'In the end, I'll have to pound the pavement like a salesman and find someone who can draw the students' attention for me.'
A lecture hall would be assigned within the next two days at the latest, and course applications would open then.
Whether in his old life or his new one, if he didn't want to ruin things, he had to move fast.
'Let's see. Who should I bring in?'
He was in the middle of pulling up the information list of the game's characters in his mind when it happened.
"...Hah."
Somewhere nearby, an intensely brilliant light began to stimulate Lee Hyun's Mind's Eye.
It was so dazzling that for a moment he couldn't even move his cane.
'Talent this radiant — that's a student with the makings of at least an A-Rank hunter.'
At first, he assumed it was her.
The once-in-a-generation rookie who posted the highest scores in the history of the National Hunter Academy.
The absurdly overpowered character who would become a Ranker within just one year of becoming a licensed hunter.
'Cha Ye-rin.'
The movements caught by his Extreme Ultra-Sensory Perception were all a spearman's, after all.
But the closer Lee Hyun got to the training ground, the more he found himself tilting his head.
'...No, it's not her?'
There was no doubt the student held a shining talent, but something was different.
It was as if an enormous gem had been set into a ring far too small for it.
When Lee Hyun finally arrived at the training ground, he understood exactly why the sight had felt off.
The sound of a spearhead tearing through the air as it advanced, the ripple of muscle, the distinctive rhythm of breath — all of it.
There was one character who was similar to Cha Ye-rin, yet unmistakably distinct.
'That girl... It's Yoo Seol-ah.'
She stood at the center of the training ground, demonstrating flawless spearwork that flowed seamlessly between offense and defense.
Her in-game skills spoke for themselves, and she'd wielded a spear from the very first pickup banner.
Which was why so many players had naturally assumed she was a spear user and raised her accordingly.
But paradoxically — precisely because of that — Yoo Seol-ah was someone who should never have picked up a spear at all.
Tap, tap.
Even when he deliberately made noise with his cane, Yoo Seol-ah didn't notice Lee Hyun at all.
Proof enough of how completely absorbed she was in her training.
'Her focus is incredible. Shame she's walking down entirely the wrong path.'
Standing where he was, Lee Hyun observed Yoo Seol-ah's spear with care.
Fast and lethal, knowing precisely when to advance and when to retreat.
There was no question — as a spearwoman, her skill was flawless, without a single flaw to pick at.
But Lee Hyun's Mind's Eye saw clearly beyond that.
Yoo Seol-ah's own radiance was being blocked by her spear.
No. Let him correct that.
Her sense of inferiority, her wounded pride — those were slowly gnawing away at the light.
Whooong!
At last, the long sequence of spearwork ended, and Yoo Seol-ah steadied her breathing.
She sank to the floor, catching her breath as her mind drifted into a daze.
Several minutes passed like that before Yoo Seol-ah finally rose to her feet.
'Now.'
For one lost and wandering, guidance toward the right path.
For one about to begin a new life in a new place, a magnificent first step.
Clap, clap.
At the sudden sound of applause, Yoo Seol-ah's head snapped up.
"That was a magnificent spear."
He clapped for her, his cane propped beside him.
Yoo Seol-ah stared at him for a moment — and then her face twisted violently.
Catching her reaction, Lee Hyun realized he'd made a mistake.
'Great. Now it looks like a blind man who can't see a thing is handing out empty compliments.'
He decided not to waste another moment and get straight to the point.
"What the—"
"Let me say just one thing."
The spear that was blocking Yoo Seol-ah's talent head-on — he pointed past it, toward the wounded pride and inferiority lurking behind it, and added:
"The sword suits you better than the spear."
When Lee Hyun finished speaking, silence was all that remained in the training ground.
"..."
"..."
Yoo Seol-ah stood stunned, and Lee Hyun stood his ground.
'What did that man just say to me?'
'I expected as much, but the reaction isn't great.'
First and foremost, from Yoo Seol-ah's perspective, the whole thing was absurd.
A man who couldn't see had walked up to her and passed judgment.
Had he been a malcontent, she would have hurled something nasty at him on the spot.
"...Pardon me, but who exactly are you, to say such a thing?"
"Ah. Forgive me for the late introduction."
Lee Hyun held his faculty ID out in front of him.
"My name is Lee Hyun. And—"
"A... professor?"
She was shocked first that a blind man was a professor at the Hunter Academy.
Then shocked again because, by any estimate, he looked to be around her own age.
"You're... really a professor?"
"If you doubt it, you're welcome to ask at the administrative office."
There were several requirements for becoming a professor at the National Hunter Academy.
The most fundamental among them was holding hunter qualifications.
'A hunter... who can't see?'
Impossible.
It couldn't be done.
Vision was among the most vital senses a human being possessed.
For hunters, whose entire reason for existence was battling monsters, that went without saying.
"That's enough introduction from me. Now I'd like to hear yours."
"...My name is Yoo Seol-ah, Professor."
"Yoo Seol-ah. A pleasure to meet you."
Even if he were insane, he wouldn't be impersonating a professor.
She couldn't fathom how it was possible, but he really was a professor — and apparently a real hunter as well.
"What you said just now. That the sword would suit me better than the spear."
Which was exactly why Yoo Seol-ah found herself even less able to let those words slide.
"Why would you say that?"
"Exactly what I said. The sword suits you better, Yoo Seol-ah."
"You couldn't even see my spearwork. What gives you the right to—"
Ah.
Realizing her slip, Yoo Seol-ah hastily clapped a hand over her own mouth.
'Yoo Seol-ah, you idiot.'
Her desperate yearning to catch up to Cha Ye-rin, her fevered striving, her wounded pride.
With all those negative emotions churning inside her, her words had come out like knives.
'What do I do?'
Wringing her hands, Yoo Seol-ah squeezed her eyes shut and steeled herself to apologize.
She had absolutely, absolutely never meant to insult or belittle him...
"I can see."
"...I'm sorry?"
"Just as you said, Yoo Seol-ah, I cannot see with my eyes. Instead, I see the world through something else."
"Through something else?"
"Human senses aren't limited to sight alone, are they?"
Yoo Seol-ah roughly grasped where Lee Hyun was going with this.
She had abilities of her own, after all, and was accustomed to relying on all five senses.
Not just sight, but hearing, smell, touch — sometimes even taste.
'Still... seeing is something you do with your eyes.'
She'd been taught that vision was the most important of the five senses.
The channel through which nearly all external information was received.
"You have the look of someone who doesn't believe me."
"That's not what I—"
Lifting his cane, Lee Hyun began walking toward Yoo Seol-ah.
His steps traced a perfect straight line without the slightest deviation.
"If you're still doubtful, then allow me to show you, Yoo Seol-ah."
Tap, tap.
Lee Hyun lightly tapped the floor with his cane.
The gesture seemed to say: remember this spot well.
"Do you see? I will stand on this line and refuse to move. And you, Yoo Seol-ah, need only use your spearwork to make me move."
"Are you... serious right now?"
A blind man who couldn't see was going to defend — not attack, but defend?
And not simply parry, but flatly declare he wouldn't move an inch?
"What choice do I have?"
"And if you move, Professor?"
"For overstepping, and for offering pointless, presumptuous advice on top of it — I will formally apologize to you before all the students."
"...Fine."
It struck her as a foolish thing to agree to, but she nodded anyway.
She wanted to prove to herself that this wasn't merely a question of weapons — that her chosen path was not a mistake.
Shhk—
Taking her position across from Lee Hyun, Yoo Seol-ah spoke.
"I'll finish this in one."
"As many strikes as you like."
"No. One. We'll settle it with a single exchange. Isn't that fairer, after all?"
She didn't seem likely to listen even if he argued.
Lee Hyun gave a small shrug, as if to say, have it your way.
"Whew."
Steadying her breath, Yoo Seol-ah slowly settled into her stance.
'Just as I thought. She's every bit the Yoo Seol-ah I know.'
His Mind's Eye, his Extreme Ultra-Sensory Perception — the information flowed in.
The rhythm of her inhale and exhale, the grip strength in her spear hand, the legs planted against the earth.
Not a single element lacking, not a single one out of place — she had achieved perfection in every respect.
She clearly had no intention of going easy on him just because her opponent was a professor, or a blind man.
And that made Lee Hyun welcome her all the more.
"Begin whenever you're ready."
"Here I come."
TWANG!
The light of her radiant talent surged toward him, flaunting itself with every step.
The tip of her spearhead, wavering not in the slightest, closed the distance in a single breath.
Fast. Intense, sharp, and heavy with killing intent.
But within it, Lee Hyun felt a heart trembling on a knife's edge — as though it were whining, isn't someone like me already impressive enough?
'You're right. One could even call you perfect already.'
But perfection was merely the number 100 as ordinary people measured it.
Those born with shining talent and destiny were only truly complete once they surpassed that number.
Fixating on perfection was nothing more than chaining oneself in shackles.
Only by breaking past their limits could they become true stars.
Raising his cane with ease, Lee Hyun caught Yoo Seol-ah's spear head-on.
KWAAAAANG!!
May this collision become the wave that carries her somewhere new.
"..."
Yoo Seol-ah stared blankly at her own spear.
She had thrust it properly. She knew she had.
There could not have been a more perfect, more piercing attack.
In her imagination, she should have been standing on the opposite end of the training ground.
Yet here she was, back at the exact spot where she'd started.
She had been hurled back without piercing her opponent at all.
Then what about Professor Lee Hyun — the man who had taken her spear head-on?
"Potential Awakening and Unique Technique Optimization."
Tap, tap.
Lee Hyun was tapping the training ground floor with his cane.
He had not moved so much as a step from the line he had chosen.
"That is the course I will be teaching. If it interests you, I'd suggest you enroll."